Price Lake & Rough Ridge, Blue Ridge Parkway

From September, 2014. It rained but the fog and the clouds made for some unique views from Rough Ridge. This was one of the first serious excursions I had with the 60D and 50mm lens.

Mini Adventure: Bond Park, Cary

This was a kind of special afternoon for me, because I really tested my Vello FD-to-EF adapter in the field. The final cut images were made using an FD 28-85mm lens that I normally use with my Canon AE-1 SLR camera. The rest were made using the 40mm EF. I think you can tell pretty easily by the quality the difference between the Vello-adapted lenses and the DSLR-made lenses. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the quality of the images, and I even got a few of animals in my home that came out with exceptional quality! I think overall though, I would stick to EF lenses on the 60D body while on adventures. The manual focus only and guesswork with apertures was throwing me off when I tried to get some better wildlife in action shots. Plus, I feel that the FD lenses just perform better on the AE-1 body.

As far as the location, I’d like to explore the trails of Bond Park later in time, but for today it was nice to get out and just relax.

Salem Lake, Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem is always a cool place to be, and this hike definitely reaffirmed that. This trail runs seven miles around Salem Lake and is perfect for anyone that is looking to just connect with nature. It’s not a rough walk, and the photo opportunities are endless. You will also meet some cool people running or walking the trail. We walked three miles and turned around for a total of six miles because the park closes (in March) at 5:00 p.m., and it was, honestly, excruciating for someone who doesn’t walk more than a mile a day regularly. But, as always, these hikes are worth it! I tested a lot of depth of field and focal preferences with my 40mm on this hike and I am completely obsessed with the results.